Okay, so let’s talk about my recent run-in with the 5 of Wands. This card kept showing up for me, not just once, but a few times over a couple of weeks. It was getting annoying, frankly. I was dealing with a situation at home, trying to get a few family members on the same page about a plan, and it just felt like hitting my head against a wall. Everyone had their own strong opinions, and nobody was really listening.
My First Look
So, I pulled out my trusty deck, the Rider-Waite-Smith one, you know the classic? And I just stared at that 5 of Wands card for a good long while. You’ve got these five guys, all holding big sticks, kinda whacking them against each other but not really hurting anyone. It looks messy, disorganized, like a pointless squabble. It didn’t feel aggressive like some other cards, more like… chaotic energy? Like everyone talking over each other, waving their arms around. It really clicked with how things felt at home – a lot of noise, a lot of different ideas flying around, but no real progress.
Digging In A Bit
I decided not to just look up the meaning again. I know the basics – conflict, competition, disagreement. But I wanted to feel it out for myself this time. What I did was this:
- I put the card down in front of me while I was doing other things, just letting it catch my eye now and then.
- I thought about the feeling of the card. It wasn’t angry, exactly. More frustrating. Like static electricity in the air.
- I tried to see if there was anything positive. Maybe it was about passion? People caring enough to argue? Or maybe just needing to hash things out, get all the different views on the table, even if it’s messy.
- I remembered reading somewhere that sometimes this card means that good things can come out of the struggle, eventually. Didn’t feel like it at the time, though!
I spent a day or two just letting these thoughts bubble up. Didn’t force anything. Just noticed how the image connected to my own situation. The lack of real harm in the picture stood out – maybe our family disagreements weren’t as destructive as they felt?
What Happened Next
So, armed with this slightly different perspective – seeing it less as a fight and more as a chaotic discussion – I changed my approach. Instead of trying to convince everyone my way was right, I focused on just letting everyone have their say, properly. Like, really listening, even when I disagreed.
In our next family chat, I consciously tried to find bits of common ground in what everyone was saying, even tiny bits. I’d say things like, “Okay, so you want X, and you want Y, but it sounds like both of you want things to be fair, right?” It sounds simple, but it shifted the energy. People still disagreed, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t magic. But the shouting died down. It felt less like a battle and more like… well, like the card. A bunch of people still waving their sticks, but maybe starting to look around a bit more, figuring out how to move without hitting each other quite so much.
We didn’t solve everything instantly, but we made more progress in that one conversation than we had in weeks. It felt like the 5 of Wands was showing me the nature of the problem – scattered energy, lots of ideas clashing – and hinting that the solution wasn’t to overpower it, but to try and find some rhythm in the chaos. It’s still a work in progress, but looking back, that card was a pretty accurate snapshot and a useful nudge.
